If the past two months have proven anything, it’s that this might be a down year for the Pac-10 in more than just men’s basketball.
The women have had their struggles as well.
With the exception of second-ranked Stanford, which has lived up to its expectation as a national championship contender, teams out of the Pac-10 failed to establish themselves in the non-conference season. The other nine teams in the Pac-10 had a composite record of 3-22 against teams from power conferences while sporting a relatively modest record of 68-37 overall going into Wednesday night’s games.
“A lot of teams in the conference have new coaches and new players — they’re rebuilding or re-establishing themselves right now — so there’s a lot of parity between No. 2 and No. 10,” University of Washington coach Tia Jackson said of the projected conference standings. “Stanford is one of those teams that separated itself from the rest of the group, but that doesn’t make them invincible. The rest of the teams are all close together.”
Through the middle of last month, No. 2 Stanford and No. 18 Arizona State were the only ranked teams from the Pac-10. Cal was the only other conference school to receive any Top 25 votes, making the Pac-10 women look a little bit like the men this preseason.
What is likely to make the women’s race different is that it’s likely to be for second place. Stanford returns almost its entire roster from last year’s 33-5 squad, including returning conference player of the year Jayne Appel, a 6-foot-5 center. As a testament to the Cardinal’s firepower, Appel is the team’s third-leading scorer this season, behind super-sophomore Nnemkadi Ogwumike and inside-outside post player Kayla Pederson. All three could find themselves on the all-conference team this season.
The top two contenders — Arizona State and Cal — lost their best players to the WNBA draft.
Arizona State, with one of the few veteran coaches in the conference, is trying to overcome the loss of Briann January, a Spokane native and honorable mention All-America. The Sun Devils, who are one of only two Pac-10 teams led by coaches with more than five years at their respective schools, struggled with some inferior opponents during the preseason schedule but also hung with national powers like Baylor and Texas A&M.
Cal is trying to overcome the loss of Ashley Walker but returns Alexis Gray-Lawson and has one of the league’s best freshmen in DeNesha Stallworth.
Four Pac-10 teams have coaches in their first or second years, including new coaches at Oregon (with former Loyola Marymount men’s coach and longtime NBA assistant Paul Westhead) and USC (with former NBA player and WNBA coach Michael Cooper).
The conference also has some personnel shakeups. UW’s go-to player is likely to be UCLA transfer Regina Rogers, while Rutgers transfer Jasmine Dixon should carry the scoring load for UCLA.
The Huskies, who finished 10th in the conference and had an overall record of 8-22 last season, just hope to be in the mix this season.
“You never want to aim for second,” said UW’s Jackson, who refuses to concede the title to Stanford. “But if we’re crossing all of our T’s and dotting all of our I’s, we’re a pretty fun team to watch. We can be a force to be reckoned with.”
Pac-10 coaches didn’t seem overly enamored with UW, picking the Huskies 10th in the preseason poll.
“It’ll be a gut check for us,” said Huskies senior Sami Whitcomb, who led the team in scoring during the preseason. “It’s insulting. No one wants to get picked last, even in a tough and capable conference.
“It’s definitely a challenge for us. We have a chip on our shoulder. We want to go out there and try to prove we’re not the 10th-place team in the Pac-10.”
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